Report card: Bangladesh
Results summary Group stageBeat Papua New Guinea by 8 wickets
Beat the Netherlands by 7 wickets
Beat United Arab Emirates by 8 wickets
Semi-final
Beat Scotland by 49 runs
FinalBeat Ireland by 25 runs
WT20Q: Bangladesh v Ireland – Bangladesh's winning moment
Positives to take home
It was all good for the women from Bangladesh, the Asian Twenty20 champions storming through the group stage and then trumping Scotland to qualify for the ICC Women’s World T20 2018 and then beating Ireland to win the trophy.
Bowling is Bangladesh’s strength, and that was proved again. Rumana Ahmed (10), Panna Ghosh (9) and Fahima Khatun (9) finished among the top-four wicket-takers in the competition, while Nahida Akter also had seven wickets. Ghosh returned career-best figures of 5/16 in the final, and Khatun picked up a hat-trick in the win over UAE.
The stellar bowling performance meant the pressure on the batters was always low, but when they got a chance, the likes of Nigar Sultana, Shamima Sultana and Ayasha Rahman did well.
In all, it was a comprehensive performance from Bangladesh, giving them much to build on going forward.
WT20Q: The Bangladesh story
Areas to improve
It’s difficult to pick holes in a team that win all five of their games, but moving into a higher level of competition, Bangladesh will need their batters to do more, put up scores in the 140-150 region, which they didn’t manage to do the two times they batted first, against Scotland, they scored 125/6 and in the final against Ireland, 122/9.
Rising star Ayasha Rahman: The 24-year-old opener played an excellent knock in the final, her 42-ball 46 with five fours and two sixes exactly the sort of innings that Bangladesh will want more of. She hadn’t been too impressive before that innings, but showed she has the skills and the temperament.